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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think blogs are crap?

86 replies

takataka · 11/12/2012 10:52

Admittedly I haven?t read all that many, but I have read a few?all of which are just drivel. Is anyone really interested in the minutiae of someone else?s life to that extent?
Why would you write one? Why would you think other people want to read it?

(Obviously I am missing something aren?t I? Confused)

OP posts:
DoingitOnTheRoofTopWithSanta · 11/12/2012 14:41

I read DIY and cooking blogs. I don't read other people's diaries.

FloatyBeatie · 11/12/2012 14:42

I never set out to "read a blog" -- I want to read something on a particular subject matter, and if the content is good I don't make any distinction between its being a blog or an online newspaper column, review, whatever.

Just out of interest, those of you who do set out to read blogs as such (i.e., who keep an eye out for new blogs to follow, etc., are you big readers of women's magazines, or were you before you moved on to blogs? I'm wondering how much correlation there is between the two audiences (audiences for blogs and audience for women's mags).
I'm just beginning to get a sense that there is some overlap, and that might partly explain some of the hostility to blogs. It might suggest that the women's mag haters are finding similar content pushed at them online, where they thought they could get away from it (I know that when I first came onto MN what I really liked about it was that it was a woman's voice that was really really NOT a womans mag, but increasingly it seems like MN is trying to build a sort of crowdsourced online woman's mag)

LisaMed · 11/12/2012 14:43

I blog, it is a boring, navel gazing, diary that should be kept quiet sort of thingy. I don't get a lot of chances to eg talk about evil cat's latest encounter with a vet and the amount of blood extracted from said vet, so it is sort of cathartic for me to be able to get the words out. I make averaging a penny per day or less, but I enjoy seeing the contrast between the ads and the posts that generated the words.

The way mine is set up is a good way of keeping a diary, which I enjoy, I keep in touch with various people through blogs. It is useful to me.

I honestly don't mind if no-one reads it. In fact, I am quite grateful that some people don't. It is really for my benefit. I am not egotistical to think it benefits anyone else. Besides, it is free and keeps me out of trouble.

That said, some blogs are amazing, inspirational, fascinating, informative and funny.

I suppose it's like that quotation - everyone has a book inside them. It just isn't always a good book.

LisaMed · 11/12/2012 14:48

FloatyBeatie - I think the blog/not blog and the women's mag/not women's mag are down to the likes a good gossip over the fence/doesn't like good gossip over the fence divide. It may even be watches soaps/doesn't watch soaps, but I do follow a few blogs but don't watch soaps. I think it is a sense of an ongoing story.

I don't have anything better to do Blush

FloatyBeatie · 11/12/2012 14:50

Lisa, I think there is a huge amount to be said in favour of writing a blog purely for the exercise of writing, for the craftsmanship and the self-clarification, self-development that it involves. The reader has to be there, at least notionally, but only as a kind of mythical figure requiring you to make sense and be truthful. It is hard to write at your sharpest unless you have some idea of putting the words out there, so the blog needs to be published, but, still, it is something very inward, and no less valuable for that.

MariaMandarin · 11/12/2012 14:51

I am addicted to blogs and follow some truly crap ones. I love them. It's just like reading a trashy magazine which I find similarly relaxing.

I have wondered how much money bloggers might be making through sponsorship etc. Some don't seem to have any other job despite only having 1500 followers. Is it possible to make a living from that? I can't seem to find out any info with a quick google and I'm really curious.

FloatyBeatie · 11/12/2012 14:51

whoops, x-post. Thanks: that's an interesting answer -- I hadn't thought of the soaps comparison, perhaps because I don't follow blogs.

LisaMed · 11/12/2012 14:55

FloatyBeatie that is interesting as I have self published. And like blogs, there is a lot of variation in that, and a lot of self indulgence.

I think a blog should require clarity and editorial consideration and at least a nod towards spelling and grammar. My drivel may be drivel, but I try and get it spelled right, appropriate grammar, consistent views etc. I enjoy the discipline.

Thank you for your post at 14:50:02, it has given me a lot to think about.

MariaMandarin · 11/12/2012 14:59

Yeah it is a bit like following a soap. I prefer reading to relax and I don't follow many tv programmes except x factor and strictly. The plots of the soaps are slightly more exciting though it has to be said. Average blog storyline 'I don't know what to buy my boyfriend for his 30th birthday'

Pandemoniaa · 11/12/2012 14:59

You can't generalise. So for that alone, YABU.

But yes, there's millions of words of shyte out there on the internet. However, rather than dismiss every blog out of hand, I object to the sort of bloggers who take their own ponderous ramblings with terrifying seriousness. Especially when it is clear that their writing talent is significantly over-shadowed by their determination to promote themselves.

There's some very entertaining blogs. You just have to find them and ignore the crap.

LisaMed · 11/12/2012 15:04

MariaMandarin in haste as school run looming.

I use Blogger, which allows you to carry ads. If someone reading the blog clicks onto the ads then the person writing the blog gets paid, maybe a penny or two, some ads get more. I haven't really paid much attention because I have a low number of followers (who I think of as friends) and I actually just enjoy seeing what the ads are, as they are generated by computers analysing the word use in the blogs. You can choose how many ads you carry and you can also choose to affiliate which I haven't but it is like being sponsored - you write nice thing about this product, you will get some pennies.

If you have 1500 followers, and you put up one post per day, and all of them click on an ad paying 1p, then you have £15 per day. If you are affiliated and getting more money, are putting up more than one post per day or are attracting ads that pay more then you will get more. It could be a useful additional income. It could get quite lucrative if you attract the right ads and post frequently.

Google adsense, which I subscribe to, doesn't pay out until you reach £60. It took me eighteen months to reach this. I don't rely on the income!

LisaMed · 11/12/2012 15:08

For those who enjoy blogs, may I recommend Hardup Hester who I do not think comes on mumsnet, and is perhaps not as mumsy, but the stories of some of her lodgers, and the mix of, ahem, interesting parties and stories of grandchildren and moneysaving are a lot of fun. I wish I was as entertaining.

TheWombat · 11/12/2012 15:14

YABU. Blogs have been a huge help to me in the last year or so. I have an unusual medical condition that required major and really rather risky surgery this summer. Learning to walk again is taking a long time. Blah, I wrote about that on Hesterton's thread so I won't go on about it here.

The point is, I know nobody else IRL with this condition, and I am so grateful to the few other women out there who wrote about their experience pre and post-surgery in their blogs. Their writing was funny, intelligent, unpatronising, uncompromising. Without those blogs, I'd have no idea what to expect from my surgery, whether every little niggle post-op was 'normal' or not, or what my scars might look like in 6months or a year's time. It gave me hope that I can get through this and that there is life on the other side! Xmas Grin

I started writing my own blog when some of these bloggers asked me to write about my own experience of going through surgery and major rehab. Maybe it is a bit narcissistic - but it also helps me to write it all down, and then get on with my life. I get bored just writing about the 'woe-is-me' aspect, so I intersperse that with pictures of particularly nice cakes I have baked, too.

Clearly, that's boring to lots of people, but if somebody on the other side of the world, who has been diagnosed with the same condition as me, finds my blog via Google and discovers that yes, life goes on and hey, you can still bake if you want to - then I'm happy with that. Most of the people who comment on my blog are people who have found me whilst hunting for information about this condition. So for me, it's been a good way of finding new people who are in the same boat as me, and sharing information and / or coping strategies in relation to a condition about which many GPs and even consultants are not particularly well-informed.

I also quite like looking at those blogs full of pretty clothes and shoes. Xmas Wink

PetiteRaleuse · 11/12/2012 15:15

Floaty I never really read womens' mags, more newsy or political things like The Week or Private Eye. Living abroad uk magazines are pretty expensive. Blogs are free, and often really well written. I have a few that I follow regularly, including some by MNers. Others I dip in and out of, or read if recommended on here or on twitter.

FloatyBeatie · 11/12/2012 15:25

Thanks Petit. Blogs must be v useful when you are overseas.

Newsy/activist ones would be the most likely to tempt me, but only when they are linked to on twitter and even then only when they leap out strongly. If they don't grab in 0.10 sec, I click away again! It's a harsh world for bloggers.

bedmonster · 11/12/2012 15:37

I don't think I've ever read a blog!

Thisisaeuphemism · 11/12/2012 16:15

People who like autobiography or those columns in the weekend papers probably would like the diary/minutiae of life/kind of blog. People who like cooking will probably prefer a cooking blog. Ditto beauty crafts etc etc

I'm a nosey bastard, I'll read anything.

To a certain extent yes blogging is self indulgent twaddle but then so is any writing music art etc. you can't let that stop you!

fridgepants · 11/12/2012 18:31

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the user's request.

JamNan · 12/12/2012 08:12

WorraLorraturkey

Decor8 is a blog.

takataka · 12/12/2012 08:57

there are some really good points raised in defence of blogs and I see how important they are to some people...i want to come back to this, but am n a bit of a rush ...just wanted to say thanks for replying for now

Re women's mags/soaps...I don't and never have read 'women's magazines' and similarly I don't and never have followed any soaps. Hmm..interesting

OP posts:
GoldQuintessenceAndMyhrr · 12/12/2012 09:20

It is also possible to make a lot of money on a good blog.

There is a Norwegian blogger that generally makes 4-6k per month, she is 19, and write about Fashion and Cosmetics, and Youth culture, "drivel" as you say to be honest. She has in the region of 30000 reading her blog daily.

One thing is ad revenue, quite another is that she is paid for "mentions", and will earn between 1-2k just for talking about a product. So she does this a few times per month. But she is literally snowed under by product samples and clothes.

I would give the links to the blogs for you to see exactly what sort of big brother style drivel that can take you into the next tax bracket instantly, but I dont want them to find this thread in their blog stats....

takataka · 12/12/2012 09:34

wow gold have you given us enough info for us to find the blog ourselves??

OP posts:
takataka · 12/12/2012 09:35

oh...it would be in Norwegian, right?!

OP posts:
GoldQuintessenceAndMyhrr · 12/12/2012 09:37

It would.

But if you google the following phrase:

"tjener mer enn foreldrene"
(earns more than the parents)

You might find it.

But to be honest, you dont need to read, you just need to look at the pictures

TheGostOfChristmasCards · 12/12/2012 09:47

I have two blogs. One is just an opinion blog (is in the network but I won't link here because I am currently under a namechange) and one links to my business. I link to the opinion one on here regularly and have always had good feedback as a result.

But there is IMO a difference between a blog that promotes a produc/service or opinionates about certain aspects of society e.g. news/sport/culture/television and is just there for light reading really, and one which, before the inception of the internet, would have been considered to be a private diary and would have been kept under lock and key so that no-one could read it, ever. I am often Confused by blogs which I happen upon which are essentially just that. "I got up this morning, had run out of coffee and I thought the world was ending. Went to the shops and bought the coffee, now I am home again drinking the coffee and my world is complete." "mood, happy." Grin To each their own I suppose but it just seems a bit exhibitionist to me, and I put it up there with facebook posts along the same lines....

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